What is pita?
pita are round, wheat, flat pies, popular in the countries of the Middle East. The word “pita” comes from Greek and means “flat cake”, which in turn comes from the ancient Greek word pektos, meaning “solid” According to estimates, flat bread resembling pita was baked as early as 12,000 years ago.
What is the recipe for pita bread?
Ingredients:
2,5 cups cake flour – 400g
5 g dry yeast or 15 g fresh yeast
1 glass of lukewarm water – 220 ml
1 tablespoon refined olive oil
1 flat teaspoon salt
Drinking recipes
The glass has a capacity of 250ml.
To prepare pita bread you will need: a large pan with a thick bottom, an oven or tiled stove, a rolling pin and a little flour to sprinkle bread.
I calculate calories based on the ingredients I use.
This is an approximate number of calories because your ingredients may have a different number of calories than the one I used.
From the given amount of ingredients came to me six large pita breads.
pita bread
The dough for pita bread is very easy to prepare.
It is enough to combine all the ingredients and knead the elastic and even dough.
In one bowl, place two and a half cups of wheat flour, that is, equally 400 grams of flour.
You can use cake flour or type 00 flour
Pour less than a glass of slightly warm water, that is, 220 ml of water.
Pour a flat teaspoon of dry yeast.
It will be no more than five grams of yeast.
Instead of dry yeast, you can also add 15 grams of fresh yeast.
Finally, a tablespoon of delicate olive oil and a flat teaspoon of salt.
Instead of olive oil, you can use another vegetable oil, e.g.
rice or grape seeds.
Mix the dough and then knead until it is perfectly smooth.
The dough is quite soft.
Cover the bowl with the dough with a cotton cloth or transparent foil.
Let stand to rise for an hour or even 90 minutes – preferably in a slightly preheated oven.
In hot weather, put the bowl on the kitchen counter in the shade.
In winter, you can also put a bowl next to the radiator.
Put the dough for pita breads on the countertop sprinkled lightly with flour.
Knead the dough for a while, then divide into six equal pieces.
Form each piece in your hands in the shape of a ball.
Do it carefully so that the dough is perfectly smooth.
Roll out each ball of dough carefully into a cake with a diameter of about 16-18 cm.
Place the pancakes side by side on a board, countertop or baking paper and cover with a cotton cloth.
It is important that the cakes do not stick to the board, because they are to maintain a perfectly rolled shape.
Pancakes under pita breads can be left to rise for 20-30 minutes.
You can finish the pita breads in two ways.
You can bake them in the oven or roast them in a dry frying pan.
I usually roast my breads in a dry and well-heated pan.
Choose a small pan with a thick bottom.
Heat the pan on a medium burner power.
Do not lubricate it with anything.
Place the pita breads one at a time in a heated pan.
After about 1.5 to 2 minutes, change the side and roast the bread for another 1.5 – 2 minutes.
Small bubbles first appear on the bread, and after a while they grow and begin to merge with each other until they form a pocket.
In this way, clean all the breads one by one.
Tip: I have an induction hob.
I heat the pan under 6.
This takes up to five minutes.
After placing the cake on a heated pan, I increase the power to 7.5 and at this power I roast pita breads.
To prepare pita breads in the oven, I recommend preheating the oven to 200 degrees with hot air or 210 degrees with baking up / down.
On the middle shelf in the oven I also heat a clean and dry baking tray from the oven equipment.
On such a heated baking tray very carefully flip ready for baking pita breads.
For one baking I put three breads.
After a while, the breads begin to swell.
For the most part, they turn into fluffy pillows.
After about 4-6 minutes, the baking becomes browned and is ready to be removed from the oven.
I remove them from the sheet and immediately put the second batch of pies.
I bake them the same as the first ones.
Do not bake breads for too long so that they do not become brittle.
They are supposed to be soft and fluffy.
You can eat warm pita breads even without any additives.
Pita are ideal for eating with various pastes and thick sauces or with falafels.
Pockets of pita breads can be freely filled, for example, with fried chicken and fresh vegetables and eaten with taste.
Pita bread works great when preparing kebabs.
I recommend you something wonderful, which is kofta with oriental spices served with yogurt and mint sauce and fresh tomato.
Cooled pita breads can be wrapped in breakfast paper and then in a transparent grocery bag and kept in a haversack for up to two days.
Pita bread can also be frozen after baking.
Be sure to check out my recipe for podpłomyk and wonderful, fluffy burger buns.
